Vodafone and Google Cloud are extending their strategic partnership to develop integrated data services.
As part of their new agreement, Google Cloud and Vodafone will develop a global data platform capable of processing and moving vast volumes of data to the cloud.
The integrated data platform, dubbed Nucleus, will house an intelligent system called Dynamo.
Using Dynamo, Vodafone's worldwide data can be extracted and encrypted from the source to the cloud and back again, thereby improving overall security. Additionally, Dynamo will cater to consumers and businesses with intelligent network features, including quick broadband speed boosts.
Together, Nucleus and Dynamo can process about 50TB of data per day. Vodafone and Google Cloud specialists are developing both technologies in-house. The project involves up to 1,000 employees from Spain, the UK, and the US.
The new data platform will most notably allow Vodafone to match network rollout to consumer demand better, increase capacity during peak times, and use machine learning (ML) to identify and resolve issues before customers become aware of them.
The Vodafone-Google Cloud partnership is geared toward facilitating collaboration amongst scientists and helping them contribute to ongoing environmental and health concerns.
“Vodafone is already assisting governments and aid organisations, upon their request, with secure, anonymised, and aggregated movement data to tackle COVID-19. This partnership will further improve Vodafone's ability to provide deeper insights, in accordance with local laws and regulations, into the spread of disease through intelligent analytics across a wider geographical area,” said Vodafone.
Vodafone also plans to provide a full digital replica of its internal support functions using artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics. The digital twin will enable analytic models on Google Cloud to deliver better responses to queries and predict future demand.
Lastly, Vodafone will migrate its entire SAP environment to Google Cloud, including SAP Central Finance.
"Telecommunications firms are increasingly differentiating their customer experiences through the use of data and analytics, and this has never been more important than during the current pandemic. We are thrilled to be selected as Vodafone's global strategic cloud partner for analytics and SAP, and to co-innovate on new products that will accelerate the industry's digital transformation," commented Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud CEO.
